The reliably alarmist UK media is raising a ruckus over new UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) statistics showing an increase in Great Britain’s ranks of problem gamblers.

On Thursday, the UKGC published Gambling Behavior in Great Britain 2015, the first such comprehensive survey of gambling prevalence in three years. The stats relied on data combined from health surveys in England, Scotland and Wales.

The media are focusing on the 0.8% of the UK population aged 16 years or over who the 2015 report deems to be suffering from problem gambling behavior, compared to 0.6% in the 2012 survey.

While the 2015 number remains a tiny fraction of the population – and comparable to rates in many other jurisdictions – UKGC exec director Tim Miller said the numbers reflected the “significant challenge” in making gambling “fairer and safer … The pace of change to date simply hasn’t been fast enough – more needs to be done to address problem gambling.”